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Dallas Mavericks guard Monta Ellis (11) weaves between San Antonio Spurs guard Danny Green (4) and San Antonio Spurs forward Tim Duncan (21) for a layup attempt during the first half of play of game 6 of the first round of playoffs at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas on May 2, 2014. The Dallas Mavericks defeated the San Antonio Spurs 113-111 to tie the series 3-3 to force a game 7. (Vernon Bryant/The Dallas Morning News)

DALLAS -- Spurs chairman Peter Holt was walking down a back
hallway at American Airlines Center, minutes after his team had frittered away
another Game 6 in the fourth quarter.

He was smiling.

"Here we go again," a passerby remarked, looking ahead
to another do-or-die Game 7 for the Spurs that the Dallas Mavericks forced with
a 113-111 victory on Friday.

Holt simply winked.

If the Spurs are rattled with their season on the line, their
owner didn't show it.

Surely, the Spurs didn't expect to be here so soon, a mere 10
months after going the distance in an NBA Finals loss in Miami. Not with the
NBA's best record in their pocket. Not in the first round.

Yet here they are, their season one loss away from extinction
already. Game 7 is Sunday afternoon at the AT&T Center.

"We're here to win four games," Spurs captain Tim
Duncan said. "We have one more at home to do that. We played great in the
regular season to put ourselves in position to have home-court, so there's no
disappointment there. We want to go in there and win this game."

The Mavs earned a winner-take-all finale behind 29 points and a
huge fourth quarter from Monta Ellis, the infectious energy of a newly
reinstated DeJuan Blair, and just enough of Dirk Nowitzki being Dirk Nowitzki.

Ellis breezed to 12 points in the fourth, sparking a 14-2 run
that helped transform a seven-point deficit into an eight-point Dallas lead entering
the final three minutes.

Blair, back after a one-game suspension for kicking Tiago
Splitter in Game 4, played as a man possessed against his former team, notching
10 points, 14 rebounds -- five offensive -- and four steals off the bench.

Nowitzki scored 18 of his 22 points in the first three quarters
before giving way to Ellis down the stretch.

"Our guys knew what was at stake today," Dallas coach
Rick Carlisle said. "We know what's at stake Sunday. We've got a lot of
veteran guys who have been in a lot of big games."

Sunday's game will mark the ninth Game 7 in the Spurs' NBA
history, their first in the opening round.

They are 3-5 in previous Game 7s. That includes a home loss to
Dallas in overtime to close a 2006 Western Conference semifinal series that eerily
resembles this one.

It fits in with the rest of a wild NBA playoff, which had already
produced four Game 7s before the Spurs and Mavs added a fifth. Among them: the
Eastern Conference's 1-8 matchup between Indiana and Atlanta.

"I've never seen eight teams (in the West) so close in
ability to win," said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who is 2-2 in Game 7s.
"It doesn't matter what the numbers are or the seeds are, they are really
unimportant. Everybody is pretty darn good."

Friday's Game 6, like four of the five that preceded it in the
series, came down to the final moments.

The Spurs wasted a brilliant fourth from Tony Parker -- he had 13
of his team-high 22 points in the final frame -- and another playoff career
high from Tiago Splitter, who scored 19 points, as well as 17 points on 7-of-7
shooting from Danny Green.

Ahead for the first six minutes of the fourth, the Spurs were
their own worst enemy in crunch time, committing five turnovers in the frame to
fuel the Mavs' offense.

"I thought we bailed them out with some poor shots and we
turned it over at the same time," Popovich said.

Down 111-105 with 20.8 seconds left, the Spurs nearly created the
kind of miracle Miami pulled on them in their most recent Game 6.

Scrambling without any timeouts, the Spurs got big 3-pointers
from Green and Patty Mills to pull within two points before Mills' last-second
heave -- which might not have beaten the buzzer anyway -- fell well short.

"They brought all the aggressiveness today," said Spurs
guard Manu Ginobili, who had his worst game of the series by going 1 for 8 with
three turnovers. "They were sharp. They made shots. And we still had them.
Of course it's disappointing, but it is what it is. We've got to go fight and
try to get it in 7."